Partnership for Women's Health

The third annual Conference on Gender-Specific Medicine, held on April 22-23 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., focused on the importance of biological sex and gender factors in research and treatment for a number of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction in men and women, psychiatric diseases, eating disorders, autoimmune diseases, and others. The conference was co-sponsored by the Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia University and the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health.

The conference began with a keynote address on “Women’s Health Research and the Science of Sex and Gender Differences” by Dr. Vivian Pinn, director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health and associate director for research on women’s health at the National Institutes of Health.

Highlights of the two-day conference included luncheon panel discussions on the challenge of communicating medical information to the public and the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of eating disorders in men and women. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, medical correspondent for ABC News, moderated the first panel discussion addressing the challenge of communicating medical information to the public. Panelists were Helena Foulkes, vice president of marketing for CVS/pharmacy; Dr. Bruce Hensel, associate clinical professor of medicine at UCLA School of Medicine and chief health, medical, and science editor for NBC4 Los Angeles; Mary Nelson, marketing director for Procter & Gamble; and Myrna Blyth, publishing director and editor-in-chief for Ladies’ Home Journal magazine.

Dr. Ann Kearney-Cooke, director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute, moderated the second luncheon panel discussion about eating disorders in men and women. Panelists were Dr. Donna Moreau, associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and director of the Children’s Anxiety & Depression Clinic in New York City; and Dr. Arnold Andersen, professor of psychiatry and director of the Eating Disorders Program at the University of Iowa.